糖心视频

Catharine Dockery thinks 鈥渧ice鈥� industries, like cannabis, sextech, psychedelics, and CBD, could be great opportunities鈥攏ot just for consumers, but for investors. So, she started a $25 million fund to invest in early-stage companies tackling said categories: Vice Ventures.

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For context, many traditional funds have 鈥渧ice clauses鈥� that stop them from investing in non-traditional companies.

鈥淏ut I鈥檇 argue that publicly-traded companies could do more harm than vice companies,鈥� Dockery told Crunchbase News.

She raised the money for the fund by cold emailing 500 venture capitalists.

鈥淚 had no network when I started this, to be transparent,鈥� Dockery said. She went from trading high-yield debt at CitiGroup to being a part of the digital brand scene, to now, venture capital.

Dockery plans to invest in 25 to 35 early-stage companies, and the average check size will be around $500,000 dollars. Vice Ventures will invest in , an online gambling company. Investors in the fund include and .

Kerin Law, chief scientific officer of , verifies and improves cannabis products to make sure they are safe using DNA testing. It targets natural product companies聽 鈥渟earching for accurate botanical identification of raw materials in the marketplace,鈥� the company鈥檚 website states.

Law told Crunchbase News that LeafWorks was in a 鈥渟weet spot鈥� – it doesn鈥檛 work with cannabis directly, but instead helps verify quality cannabis through DNA testing. This, she said, helped them circumvent investor qualms with cannabis companies. The word cannabis .

鈥淵ou鈥檙e making a good investment because you鈥檙e able to get into the cannabis space [through] a genetic test, [and] you鈥檙e not facing as much federal scrutiny or uncertainty if you were a plant-touching company,鈥� she said.

LeafWorks鈥� last round, raised through family and friends, was $1.8 million.

, that designs its products in San Francisco, hasn鈥檛 sought traditional venture capital investment; however, it did raise through angel investors in 2015. , the company鈥檚 CEO, said he was thoroughly surprised by his company鈥檚 reception with investors.

In fact, Topolovac said it was easier to raise venture capital for his vibrator startup than his previous company which focused on enterprise cloud management and applications.

鈥淸Investors] look at these categories as the future,鈥� he told Crunchbase News.

Contrary to Dockery’s perception, both LeafWorks and Crave executives said this isn鈥檛 the first rumblings they鈥檝e heard on venture funds popping up to address their niches. They said Vice Ventures鈥� new fund is not a one off – mostly because there鈥檚 big opportunities for returns in the market, and that鈥檚 all it takes for a vice to turn into an investor鈥檚 virtue.

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